Paraswift robot flings itself off buildings

The Paraswift opens a paraglider and drops off the wall.
Video screenshot by CBSNews

The dramatic music in the video below would have you believe something magical is about to happen, like a superhero is set to swoop in and rescue a damsel in distress or an mysterious entity of some sort is about to be revealed.

Instead, a base-jumping robot merely throws itself off a building. It looks kind of shaky, but it's actually pretty cool.

You see, there's something magnificent about the Paraswift, a collaboration between Disney Research and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich.

Although it was built for entertainment purposes, the compact robot can climb, fly, and be instrumental in gathering aerial footage for 3D modeling systems (like Google Street View), NewScientist says.

Paul Beardsley presented the Paraswift at the Conference on Climbing and Walking Robots and the Support Technologies for Mobile Machines in Paris. The coolest part about this robot is that its wheels are the only things that need to touch the wall. That's not easy for just any robot to do.